In this Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012, photo, a sign hangs in North Andover, Mass., where an existing home is for sale.

AP Photo/Elise Amendola

SPRINGFIELD - The median sales price for homes in the Pioneer Valley rose 7.1 percent from $155,000 in February 2012 to $166,000 in February 2013.

“What we are seeing is that the worst is over,” said Linda S. Rotti, sales manager at Jones Group Realtors in Amherst and a leader in the Realtor Association of Pioneer Valley. “You can only pen up demand for so long. With every recession there is a recovery.”

Sales volume fell by 0.9 percent, less than one percentage point, from 223 homes in February 2012 to 221 in February 2013, according to statistics released this week by the Realtor Association of Pioneer Valley.

Brian P. Sears, a broker and owner at Sears Real Estate in Springfield, said Tuesday that he’s starting to get multiple offers from buyers. That was rare during the depths of the recession.

“For many years if you said you had another offer the buyer would just go and find another house. They wouldn’t compete,” said Sears, who also serves as president of the Realtor Association of Pioneer Valley.

One reason that there is now competition among buyers is that the number of homes for sale is low. Many owners have been holding off waiting for prices to rebound. Also, anyone who bought in the last decade or so probably paid more for their home than they owe on the mortgage because home values have fallen. Being upside down, even through no fault of their own, would make it hard to sell even if they wanted to do so, Sears said.

Inventory fell 10.6 percent from 2,417 single-family homes on the market at the end of February 2012 to 2,161 homes on the market at the end of last month. That works out to 10.8 months of supply at the current rate of sales, the Realtor Association said. The market is thought to be in balance with about eight or nine months of supply.

Low interest rates area also making homes affordable, Sears said.

A 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.51 percent for the week ending Feb. 28, according to FreddieMac.com. This time last year the average was 3.95 percent.

Sears said February ‘s results are especially heartening because last year’s winter was much more mild than this years winter. The February numbers are closings, that is deals that were largely hammered out back in November and December when most people are reluctant to look at homes.

Nationally, economists have been pointing to improvements int he housing market as a sign of a rebounding economy.

New-home sales jumped 16 percent in January, according to The Associated Press, to the highest level since July 2008. And builders started work on the most homes last year since 2008. 

Sears said the biggest improvements in housing around the country were in Florida and in the West, not coincidentally the same markets that crashed the hardest when the recession hit. In New England, the fall was less steep so the climb has been more gentle.

"I hope we never go back to double-digit appreciation here," Sears said. "It isn't fair and it is not sustainable."

In Hampden County, the region's largest housing market, sales rose 2.6 percent from 156 to 160. The median price rose 17.4 percent from $135,000 to $158,450.

In Hampshire County, sales rose 11.1 percent from 36 to 40. The median price rose 7.6 percent from $225,00 to $242,000.

Franklin County saw its sales drop 32.2 percent but in real numbers it meant a drop of only 10 homes sold from 31 in February 2012 to 21 last month.

The median sales price fell 4,.4 percent from $183,000 to $175,000.

Taking a long-term view, the median price is down 3.5 percent from $172,000 in February 2009 to $166,0000.

The inventory of homes for sale fell 10.6 percent from 2,417 at the end of February 2012 to 2,161 at the end of last month.